Of Near Humans, Foundlings, and Family
by Mirror and Image
Summary: [Complete] The Mandolorian meets a near human who can speak Mando'a while getting supplies. His foundling is enamored, and he is suspicious.


**Of Near Humans, Foundlings, and Family**

Mirror and Image

"Mando! Wait, Mando!"

The Mandalorian ignored the call, wanting to get back to the _Razor Crest_ and back to space. The _adiik_ was sleeping, but not for long, and he needed to resupply. Capitol City was a large hub, the only thing of import not only on the planet but the entire sector, and the Mandalorian didn't want to stay too long.

He still had to look for clues, had to find a way to find the sorcerers.

"Mando! Oh… how do you say it… _Su cuy'gar_!"

_That_ made him pause, turn and look out across the open air market.

A boy was running up to him, not even ten, near human, with rich green hair and green tips to his ears. He moved through the crowds gently, the look on his face saying he was afraid the Mandalorian would leave if kept waiting. Mando started to turn, encouraging the idea.

"Wait! Uh, _naak!_ _Naak!_ I come in peace!"

"_If you do, then you know the language I speak_," he replied in his native language. Mando'a was almost never spoken anymore outside of a covert. He wanted to know how this near human spoke it, and if there was another covert nearby.

The boy was dressed in a spacer jacket and flight pants, worn but well made, one sleeve littered with color. His eyes were a bright, bright blue. "You said something about language," the boy said. "I haven't heard Mando'a since the war ended."

The Mandalorian tilted his head. That was not a date he expected to hear. "What do you want?" he asked.

"To ask if you've seen my aunt," the boy said. "She left a long time ago to look for my uncle, and I have not seen her since. You're a Mandalorian, like her. I thought you might know." He took a breath, running a small hand through his green hair - his ears were nearly the color of the child's, the green was so pale. "Mother says we've never seen another Mando since the Purge. My Aunt was sad for a long time, she said."

"And who is your aunt?" the Mandolorian asked.

The boy smiled. "Sabine Wren, of Clan Wren, House Vizla," he said, puffing up with pride. "I remember she said the Vizla used to be very powerful. Have you heard of them?"

Paz...

"Boy," the Mando said, "That clan is dead." The _house_ was dead, barely a hundred members left. He could still remember the day Deathwatch came to save him, the debt and honor and _oh_, he didn't want to think about it. It always hurt to think about it. "Everyone died the Night of a Thousand Tears."

The boy's face fell, those very blue eyes lowering. "Not all of them," he mumbled. "Sabine is still alive." He looked up, fierce. "She's still alive! I know it! She'll find Ezra and bring him home!"

"Then why are you asking me?" the Mandolorian asked. He could feel the _adiik_ shifting in the _birikad_ he'd fashioned, knew the child was going to wake soon.

"Because I felt it," the boy said, shaking his head. "As soon as I saw you, I knew…" he voice drifted off, gaze disappearing to something the Mando couldn't see. The boy frowned, blue eyes snapping to the makeshift _birikad_ on the Mandalorian's back. "I knew…" something in his voice changed as his eyes widened. "Oh."

Then the wail. The child was awake.

Cursing creatively, the Mandalorian shifted the harness, lifting the flap to inspect the child, saw the _adiik_ was taking in a breath but stopped upon seeing the other member of the clan. The child quieted immediately, and the Mando nodded. A stubby talon reached out, not to the Mando but away, to the boy, as the child's eyes widened and turned. The little clawed hands was flopping up and down, not quite a wave, and the near human stepped forward and started to reach up.

Mando took a step back, hand reaching for his holster. Something didn't smell right. "Back off, boy," he said.

The near human blinked, distant gaze disappearing, and those blue eyes snapped back to the Mandolorian. He blinked, finally noticing the warning hand on the holster. "Uh," he said, staring at the holster. Then, "Eep!" as he realized the danger, and jolted back several feet. The child whimpered, looking back at his guardian with ears tilted down. The _adiik_ moaned, shaking his head, and turning back to the near human, holding a tiny hand out.

"You want to play?" the Mandolorian asked the child. It cooed, leaning away, closer to the green haired boy, who watched with wide blue eyes, apprehensive. The child wiggled and tugged in the Mando's grip, and he was forced to put the child down, and watched him waddle over to the boy. The near human knelt down, one hand out in a small gesture, and the baby giggled when he finally reached the hand, clasping it with stubby paws. He looked back to his guardian and _smiled_.

The Mando… Din was done in after that.

Moving his hand away from the holster and closed the gap, kneeling down and grabbing the swaddling clothes, picking up his charge and putting him back in the _birikad_. "You got a name, boy?" he asked.

"Jacen," the boy replied. "Jacen Syndulla."

"Fine. Know a place to resupply?"

"Yes! Let me show you!"

… _Haar'chak._

* * *

The little near-human guided Din through the market, down a series of alleys to a line of speeders tucked up against an otherwise nondescript building. Din noticed there was construction in this part of the city: tall scaffolding and duracrete blocks, hard hats and construction droids. Inside the building were shelves and shelves of goods of all kinds: cooking spices, medipacks, maintenance tools, spare parts, salt, sugar, even _shig_ and a variation of _uj'ayl_. He immediately bought the tea and swatted the child's talons from the syrup, restocked on protein packs, ration bars, basic spices and several cuts of frozen meat and bone broth. After that was repair supplies for his ship, things he had put off getting after he took the asset because he had neither credits nor time: now that he had a foundling of his own he could no longer put it off. Also there was medipacks, one specifically for children and immunizations. Din realized he would need to take his little _adiik_ to a med center and learn what had and hadn't been given to the kid yet.

The boy, Syndulla, watched from the door of the shop, eyes wide and staring at Din's charge. The child stared right back, always angling his small head to watch the boy, ears poking into Din's neck with each turn. Order complete, Din winced as he paid out his credits and realized he had come up short. He still had to refuel. He was debating on what to take out of his order when the Syndulla boy came up.

"Do you think you could put it on my mom's tab?" he asked, leaning onto his tiptoes to see over the counter.

"Jacen?" the shopkeeper asked, blinking. "What are you doing with this bounty hunter, you little loth-rat?"

"He's not a bounty hunter," Syndulla said, "he's part of the same house as Aunt Sabine, that means he's family."

Din froze to hear the sentence, mind whirling to know how the boy had guessed his house and doubling back on how the near-human had jumped to the conclusion that they were family. Syndulla turned, his bright blue eyes wide and just like… just like the _adiik's_. Who did this _aruetyc_ think he was to claim he was _aliit_, claim he was family? This _outsider_?

The shopkeeper shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "You and your feelings, Jacen," she said, shaking her head. "You've never been wrong yet, and I know the General's good for it."

"Thank you!"

Din had two crates of supplies when all was said and done. Syndulla hopped on one of the cates, making it rock back and forth on its levitator pads. "You can attach it to one of the speeders," he said, pointing to the neat row they had passed. "There's a place to dock it at the spaceport, and it'll get back here tomorrow."

"That's helpful," Din said, uncertain what else he was supposed to say. He locked the crates to the speeder and checked to see that the child was secure in his harness. The child was still fussing, away from his new friend, wiggling and whimpering. "_Udesii, udesii_," he said softly. "Take it easy, calm down."

"It's okay, youngling," Syndulla said from behind Din on the crate. "I'm right here. You can still feel me."

Feel him? Din shook his head. What kind of contact did he think they had feet apart like they were? He started the speeder. The child still squirmed in the harness, but the ride was mercifully short back to the space port. He could feel the boy on the crate behind him, staring at his charge. Discomfort filled him, and Din didn't understand why. Children were always interested in other children, even when he was growing up in the covert. The farmers all loved the child on Sorgon, the tiny village was nearly the _adiik's_ home before Din realized they were still being hunted. Why was this near human boy different? What caused his hackles to rise, his suspicion to bubble up?

There was, as the boy said, a line of speeders he hadn't noticed when he arrived at the space port. He docked the bike and started moving his crates. Syndulla hopped off the one he had been riding and moved to help. The _adiik_ watched the boy fervently. The near human stayed at the base of the ramp, didn't set foot on the ship and just watched as Din started to unpack his crates and load supplies. At least he had enough manners to wait for permission.

However, the minute Din started going up the ramp the child cried out again, fighting against the _birikad_ harness and climbing up almost to his shoulder, looking over it, refusing to lose sight of Syndulla.

"You know," the boy said, running a hand through his green hair. "You know, he's not used to seeing someone like him. He's trying to figure me out."

"So am I, boy," the Mandolorian said, moving further up the ramp. The child shrieked, right in his ear, and climbed even higher, making his displeasure known. Din grunted, grabbing his charge and trying to better place him in the _birikad_.

"Just let him sit with me," Syndulla said, staring up the ramp, eyes large and so very blue. "I promise I won't do anything."

Din didn't want to agree. Didn't want his charge exposed to the near human more than he already was. He didn't understand why the boy stared as much as his foundling, didn't understand the connection the two of them had so suddenly.

No, that wasn't true.

He knew that connection, because he had felt it as soon as he saw the child: a helpless asset at the mercy of the Empire. Din, too, couldn't take his eyes off the child at first, it was as if a spell had been cast over him… now that he knew the child was a _Jetti_, a Jedi sorcerer… why was he casting his spell on the Syndulla boy?

… Jealous? Was he jealous?

The thought made him angry with himself, and just to prove a point he pulled off the _birikad_, set his foundling down by the Syndulla boy, and marched up the ramp to his first crate to unpack. He wasn't _jealous_, he was _perfectly fine_.

… that didn't mean he didn't watch his foundling as he put away his supplies. Foodstuff and munitions and parts, everything but the medipack and _shig_ tea that needed to go up to the cockpit were put away in the main hangar, one eye always on his charge. Syndulla was laid out on his belly to be at eye level with the _adiik_, legs swinging up and down, as the two of them held hands with their eyes closed. Din's foundling's ears moved intermittently. When everything was put away he turned to collect his little one, but seeing the two of them… the spell was happening again, and Din could only stand and watch from the top of the ramp. What were they doing, the child holding the boy's hand like that, eyes closed and both frowning?

The spell finally broke, however, and both of them opened their eyes at the same time.

"That was really wizard," Syndulla said, climbing up to a sitting position. "I went further than I ever did before! I wonder if Dad could do that when he was alive."

Something in Din twitched. The boy didn't have a father…? He kept still, watching silently.

"He was like us, you know," the boy said to Din's foundling. "Mom said he could do the same stuff we do." He reached over, palm out, a gesture Din had seen several times and made every hair stand on end. Was this boy…?

And, from one of the crates, a bottle of something just… floated up and came to the boy's hand. Din, the Mandolorian, was suddenly flooded with adrenaline.

"How did you do that?" the Mando demanded, stepping forward. "How do you know how to do that?"

Syndulla, no, the near human snapped his head up to look at the former bounty hunter in surprise. "Oh!" he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you saw that!"

"_How did you do it?_" the Mandolorian demanded.

Feeling fear now, the boy stumbled to his feet, hands up and backing away. The child was whimpering again, but the Mando placed himself in front of his foundling to protect it. If the boy was going to cast a spell…!

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the boy said, bumping up to the back of an empty fuel crate. "I thought you knew about it because he can do it too!"

"How do you even know _that_?" the Mando demanded, hand on his holster. "Are you casting more magic?"

"It's not magic! It's the Force!"

"Force?" the Mandolorian demanded, taking an aggressive step forward. "You're using force on the kid?"

"No! Not like that! I'm not using force, I'm using _the_ Force! Like the Jedi!"

_Jedi..._

The word froze him, as he realized just what was in front of him. Just _who_ was in front of him.

"You're…"

The boy was still, keeping his hands up and wincing away from the Mando, and suddenly he could feel a pulling at his ankles; he looked down and saw the child grabbing at his boot, shaking his small head. Din crouched down, placed a hand on the foundling's head, but he ducked out of it, moving back to the boy, touching his leg and looking up at Din in what could only be called "imploringly."

Din thought he could feel the spell again, and he shook his head. He would not be swayed in this, he had to do right by his foundling. "What are you?" he demanded, fist wrapped around his blaster.

"I'm Jacen Syndulla," the near human said.

"But _what_ are you?" Din repeated.

"I'm Force sensitive!" the boy whined, jumping at the aggressive tone. The child was still at the boy's ankles. "He is, too! My dad was, too! So was Uncle Ezra!"

"And what does that mean?" the Mandolorian asked.

"It means I can feel the Force!" the boy said, squirming and trying to press himself into the empty fuel crate. The green hair hid the scrunched up eyes, but not the shaking in the boy's voice. "It means I can sense and do things! Like with the juice bottle!"

The words ground into the Mando's head, bleeding in one word at a time as the revelation dawned slowly. The protective aggression faded as he started to realize the truth. Like the Jedi. _Like the Jedi._ The Mandolorian straightened his posture, finally seeing what was in front of him. Stars above, this was the best lead since starting this quest and here he was threatening to blast him. Din sighed, moving his hand and shifting his weight. He stepped forward, softer this time, but the boy still jumped. Din crouched down and waited. His foundling reached over, touching his boot with one claw while the other stayed on the boy's - on Syndulla's ankle.

"I'm sorry," Din said softly.

Syndulla dared to look up, it looked like even his pupils were blue. Din waited, held himself still, tried to show he was non-threatening (for now). The child cooed, ears up and batting both of their boots. Syndulla looked at the baby, and glanced at Din.

"He's happy you're not mad now," he said softly.

"I know."

"I'm still a little scared."

Din nodded, uncertain what to say, at first. "You can come onto the ship, if you want. You can have your juice there."

It was a weak peace offering, but it was all Din was willing to give. He wanted to know in no uncertain terms this boy could take him to the Jedi before he said or did more. He stood, took a few steps and turned. His little one was already following, little claws out and a smile on his face. Syndulla started to follow, too.

The juice was done and the foundling was in Syndulla's lap, napping. Syndulla held the child carefully and watched Din even more carefully. Din couldn't blame him. Much.

"You said you were a Jedi?" he asked carefully.

The boy shook his head. "No."

_Haar'chak_.

"My dad was, though," Syndulla added, straightening. "A Jedi Knight." Pride filled his features.

"And where is he now?"

"He's one with the Force."

"Kid, I don't know what that means."

Syndulla deflated a little, hand stroking one of the _adiik's_ ears. From down the ramp was a soft _mewl_, and the boy looked over. Din did as well, and saw a loth-cat sitting on the base of the ramp, looking up at them.

"A white loth-cat…?" Syndulla said, distracted. He got up, the child still in his arms, and moved down the ramp. He shuffled the weight before holding a hand out. The white loth-cat tilted its head, tail fluffing left and right, before turning and darting to the edge of the space port. The boy turned. "Come on," he said quickly. "We just got a sign!"

"A sign of what? Wait, come back!"

The boy ran off, the _adiik_ still in his arms and Din was going to _kill that boy_ if anything happened to his foundling.

It was a power walk for Din, a half jog for Syndulla as he carried the child in his arms, head up to the balconies and awnings as he followed the white loth-cat. Din had _no idea_ why a loth-cat could be considered a sign, let alone a sign of _what_, and the whole day was stepping too far outside his comfort zone. Give him a blaster, a rifle, a target, a face. That he could work with, but a boy talking about some kind of "force," following cats on a whim, staring off into space… He didn't understand it. And he didn't understand why _his foundling_ was so determined to keep the boy around. Even with the hope of finding a lead on the Jedi, there was too much magic going on for Din to feel comfortable.

Syndulla slowed to a stop, and he turned to Din, his face… Din didn't have a name for the emotion. "I know where we're going," the boy said. He started walking, this time at a more sedate pace, deeper into the new construction.

Din followed.

The new buildings very suddenly fell away, a wide open space - a park of some kind - appeared. Large, circular, and curiously concave, it almost looked like…

Din stilled. It was a blast site. He lifted his forearm and tapped a few commands - the space was enormous, the scale of some kind of heavy ordinance, maybe even orbital bombardment. It wasn't a park, this was a memorial. Massive local stones spiraled up into the air, rich green grass so soft that his feet sank into the earth. The white loth-cat was back, hopping through the concave field and climbing one particular stone. As they approached, Din saw that it was different than the other: slightly taller, not imbedded in the ground but placed on some kind of small pedestal. Local flowers adorned it, climbing up the stone, and at the base of the pedestal was a cylinder of some kind. Not a pipe, there was some kind of blaster emitter, a sleeve, a power switch. His head tilted. What was this place?

"This is where it happened," Syndulla said, reaching up and touching the stone, the _adiik_ still in hand.

"It?"

Syndulla turned, looked up at the Mandolorian, blue eyes again so very bright.

"This is where my dad died," he said, with the calm certitude of reciting facts one didn't really understand. Din, however, stilled. This was where the Jedi fell…?

"Mom had been caught," Syndulla said, squatting down to a sitting position and settling the foundling into his lap. The child was still sleeping. "Dad looked to the Force for a way to free her, she said. They snuck in and broke her out, but they got caught here. This place used to be a fuel depot, but they fired anyway."

Din blinked behind his helmet. Someone _fired into a fuel depot?_ Were they _crazy?_

"The fireball was enormous, but Dad stepped forward and he held the fire back."

He did _what_?

Syndulla was rubbing the child's ears, soft motions that made the baby smile in his sleep. Din crouched down, feeling this was important but not understanding why.

"Uncle Zeb wasn't there, but he explained it," Syndulla said. "The force of the explosion was big - he said the numbers but I don't remember them. But Dad was a Jedi, and size doesn't matter to a Jedi. He tapped into a force greater than himself, and the fire was blocked."

Wait… something filtered into Din's memory… on Navarro, after the blast… he thought he wasn't going to make it. He was trying to get Kara Dune to see the child to safety, and there was a broken, out of sequence memory of heat… of _fire…_ and the child lifting a hand…

The cold vacuum of space flooded down his spine.

"Mom said she could see blue, like the color of his lightsaber, around his hands. He held the fire back, and he lifted her to the transport Aunt Sabine and Uncle Ezra were flying. He sacrificed himself so she could live. Mom says she wonders if he knew about me, too, and wanted to make sure I had a future."

Silence settled over them, Din once again absorbing the tale one word at a time, looking around at the memorial, the crater, reverse engineering the size of the explosion it must have created and the image of one man holding all of that power in check to get his family safe.

… Din would do it in a heartbeat, if he had that power, to protect the _adiik_.

Jedi sorcerers may have fought with Mandalore… but it seemed they were honorable combatants, at least.

Din studied Syndulla. The boy was not melancholic, he recited the story but didn't really understand it, was not connected to the event enough to understand the weight of the words he said. But at the same time… there was a distance in his voice, and in his eyes, that suggested he had the hint of an idea. Din wasn't sure what to say, all he could come up with was,

"I'm sorry."

The boy snapped back to attention. "No, it's okay," he said, brightening. "If Dad hadn't done that, none of us would be alive. If Uncle Ezra hadn't done what he'd done, we've never have kicked out the Empire, that's what Mom and Uncle Zeb and Uncle Kallus said. They did something good. Jedi always do something good. That's why they're Jedi."

"And you can do something like that?"

The near human shook his head. "Nothing like that. I haven't been trained."

"Why not?"

Syndulla blinked like Din had grown a second head. "All the Jedi are gone," he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They were purged when the Empire was born."

Purged…

_Purged…_

"My dad and Uncle Ezra were the last Jedi to ever live."

Memories of That Night washed over him, and Din had to quickly shut the thought down, blinking rapidly behind his helmet. There were others out there who knew what it was like to be purged… Except no, _none were left_… they had lost their way. There _was_ no way. There was… there was…

There was no one to help the child.

_Haar'chak. Haar'chak!_ What was he to do now?

Syndulla sighed, looking down at the foundling. "I guess that's why I called out," he said, voice far away, not distant but rather reflective. "I saw you, and I thought of Aunt Sabine, and how she was looking for Uncle Ezra. He would have known how to train me." He looked up. "I bet he would have known how to train both of us."

"Is this Ezra… one with the Force?" Din asked, trying to use the right phrase.

"We don't know," Syndulla said. "He and the purrgil took the Empire on a hyperspace jump, and we never saw them again."

… Din had no idea how to parse that sentence, simply let it lie. _Purrgil?_

He looked up at the monument, eyes tracing up the flowery stone and to the sleeping white loth-cat, curled in the warm light of the sun. What would he do now, knowing the Jedi were extinct? He found no entries on the holonet at all about the child's species, and without the _Jetti_ he had no clue where to go next. How else could he help his foundling?

"You're worried," Syndulla said suddenly.

Din turned to the boy. "What?"

He shrank back, nervous. "I said you're worried," he repeated. "It's all around you; it's really loud."

"... Loud?"

"To me. To him, too," he added, running his fingers along the top of the sleeping child. "He feels a lot, he doesn't have words yet but his feelings are strong enough to give me pictures. He always knows when you're mad, or when you're scared. He was very scared when you were…" he frowned, chewing on a lip. "When you were really hurt."

"_I'm not… I'm not gonna make it…_"

Din stiffened. The child had heard that? Understood it?

"He also knows how much you care, and that makes him really, really happy."

Something burned in Din so suddenly and so brightly he had no idea how to respond, snapped his mouth closed and waited for the reaction to subside. And damn that boy, the near human was _smiling_, as if he could somehow see the reaction under the helmet.

* * *

They sat together until sunset. The white loth-cat sleeping up above them, the child sleeping in Syndulla's lap. It didn't bother Din as much now, and he leaned back on the memorial stone, next to the boy, watching as the twin moons started to crest over the horizon.

"Are you supposed to be somewhere?" he asked the boy, turning, but he saw that Syndulla was asleep, too, curled under the cylinder memorial. The _adiik_ was awake, quiet, looking up at the stars that could be seen through the light pollution of the city.

"How much do you understand?" Din asked the foundling. "Do you know that his father was one of your people? Do you know that your people are all gone?"

… Did he know that Din's people were all gone, until he was rescued by the Mandolorians? Did he know that he and Din were the same: survivors of a Purge, clinging to those that found them, fighting to just survive? He reached over to the child, and a tiny talon reached back, grabbing Din's finger. The foundling's tiny head tilted, ears lifting, quiet and calm, as if it could absorb the entire galaxy in his gaze.

"I don't know if I can help you," Din confessed. "I don't know if I can give you what you need. I don't know if I can teach you."

The idea of having a foundling, of being a clan of two, it was terrifying. How could he do right by this child? When he'd been taken in, all of House Vizla had helped in raising him, he'd had other foundlings and children of the clan, teachers, classes, multiple adults to guide him. Now it was just him - he could not endanger his House with the price of this foundling, he could not even settle in one place - someone with a FOB would find him eventually.

This was no way to raise a foundling. How could Din ever do right by the child? How could he teach him the Way? All he could do was protect him.

… And he would do it with his life if he needed to.

_Nyeow_.

Din looked down, saw the loth-cat had somehow climbed down the memorial statue and was at his feet, looking up with eyes just as blue as Syndulla's. Its tiny nostrils flared, one ear flicking to the boy before pointing back at Din.

The child stood on stubby legs and moved over to the cat - twice its size, and reached a tiny hand out. The loth-cat bent its head, ears pulling back and leaning into the touch. It purred, tail swishing back and forth.

"The boy said you were a sign," Din said to the cat. "What does that mean?"

The loth-cat looked up from its cuddling of the _adiik_, and Din could have sworn it smiled, before standing and stretching, it's bird-like talons spanning out. The child watched, ears up, and the loth-cat turned and started to move away, before stopping and turning. It took another step, and then turned, waiting.

The foundling was already moving to follow, stubby hands out and smile on his face. Din straightened, got to his feet. In the seconds it took to do so the cat was already several feet away.

And so was the child.

… What?

Din moved across the field, the grass getting taller and his foundling harder to see. Every time he caught site, the _adiik_ was further away than his tiny legs could possibly carry him, and the loth-cat was always slightly farther still. Its white fur stood out in the night sky, the moons both full and making it bright as day.

The child laughed, and Din turned to the left, confused to how his foundling got there. Then the giggle was to his right, then behind, and the loth-cat seemed to just appear wherever his eyes fell, and the purring and the laughter were starting to mix together, and where were the memorial stones, and where were the buildings, and what was happening…?

_Magic_.

_Jetti_ sorcery…?

"Is a Jedi there?" he called out, spinning around. He put a hand on his blaster, spaced his feet, ready to grab the child if he needed to. He turned his head around, trying to find his charge.

"_Adiik? Addik!_ Where are you?"

_Haar'chak_, _where was the kid?_

The loth-cat was at his feet suddenly, rubbing up against his boots, and all Din could feel was fear because he _could not find the child_, he kicked the cat away, ignoring it's frightened yelp. Something howled in the distance, a predator, there was danger…!

"Kid!" he called out. "_Adiik!_ If you can hear me make a noise!"

There, the distinct coo. Din, the Mandolorian, followed it, pulling out his blaster. He tapped on his wrist pad, trying to get a reading on where he was, but all he could see were error messages. He drew his blaster, following the noise of his foundling, growling as he tried to fire up his jetpack. If this was the kind of sorcery the _Jetti_ would teach the child…! "Hey, kid!"

A happy coo, soft and right on his shoulder. The child was in his hands, somehow, and all Din could feel was relief. "There you are! Let's get out of here," he said.

But his jetpack would not fire, he was stuck on a field nowhere near the city, nowhere near the memorial or Syndulla who somehow understood these "signs."

The child cooed again, tucking his head into Din's neck and chewing on the fabric of his cape. He was perfectly content, quiet, and looked up at his guardian with eyes so wide every star in the galaxy reflected in them. Relief fell away, Din lost in the child's eyes, in the galaxy that existed there. His blaster lowered, his worries seemed to bleed out of him. The foundling was safe, in his arms, where he belonged. Where they were didn't matter. As long as they were together.

Din lowered his blaster, energy leaving him, sense slowly leaving him, as he stared into the child's galaxy-filled eyes. He fell to his knees, and held his foundling close.

The _adiik_ nuzzled his neck, a soft sigh, and a noise Din had never made before escaped his lips. He leaned back into the soft black fur as the loth-cat hopped onto his knee, mewling and putting its front legs on his chest, rubbing its face into the child's free hand. Everything was soft, even his perception, and all Din could feel was the gentle intake of breath behind his back, the steady heartbeat behind him mirroring the tiny heartbeat in his arms.

_Sleep_, the Loth-wolf said.

And he did.

* * *

He awoke with a start. The twin moons were high in the sky, no longer just over the horizon. The child was in his arms, the loth-cat on his lap. Syndulla was curled into his side, still asleep.

A… a dream?

His foundling looked up, and the sense of the galaxy in his eyes was gone. He simply looked, as he always did, quiet and content. Maybe a little curious. The _adiik_ was still chewing on his cape.

Well… so long as they were together. Din sighed, leaning back on the monument, the honor of the _Jetti_.

"I don't know if I can teach you everything," he told his foundling. "But I will try my best. No," he corrected, looking up to the moons. "I will not try, I _will_ do my best. I hope it's enough."

He heard a beep, the dissonant sound of a communicator. Din looked around, saw something blinking on Syndulla's wrist. His family, probably. He shifted his weight, hoping to be careful with the Loth-

The Loth-cat was gone.

… more sorcery…?

Din stood, careful of his charge and gently moved Syndulla, shaking his shoulder. "Hey," he said, "Wake up. You're family's calling you."

"Hm?" the boy asked, rubbing his eyes. The near human blinked owlishly, looking up and staring at the Mandalorian helmet. Then the beeping registered in his green ears and he fumbled for his wrist. "Mom!" he said, "I'm so sorr-"

"_Not _another_ word, Jacen Syndulla!_" a Twi'lek woman said, lekku bouncing in the tiny blue hologram. "_Do you have _any_ idea what time it is? How worried we've been? Zeb has been out on the speeder for two hours! Where are you?_"

"I'm at the memorial," Syndulla said quickly, voice loud in the quiet of the night. "I met a Mandolorian-"

"_You can tell me all about it after you've been grounded for ten rotations! You're not leaving the planet until you can prove to me you won't wander off like this! I'm sending Zeb your location. You had _better_ be there when he arrives._"

The hologram blipped out, and Syndulla sighed, forlorn. "I'm so dead for this…" he mumbled.

"Come on," Din said, standing. "Let's get to the mouth of the memorial, where this Zeb guy can find you."

"Okay…"

Syndulla trudged forward, thinking about his imminent doom. Din moved to follow, before something made him turn to the Jedi's monument. His eyes traced the flowers, fell once again to the cylinder. Should he give offerings…?

"_Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la,_" he said, bowing his head. _You are not gone. You are merely marching far away_. It was due respect for the dead.

He turned and followed the boy. At the entrance to the memorial was a giant creature, muscular and lumbering. He didn't know the name immediately, but Syndulla mumbled, "Hi, Zeb," before climbing on the speeder.

"You'll have to do a lot better than 'hi' to make your mum feel better," the creature growled, voice deep and accented from the Core.

"I couldn't help it," Syndulla said. "I was chasing a white Loth-cat."

"Boy, I don't care what the _Ashla_ was trying to show you, you tell us where you're going. And why's Hola Sumar saying you put something on your mother's tab?"

"That would be me," Din, the Mandolorian said. He eyed the big creature Zeb, but for some reason he was not suspicious, nor protective. Something in him had shifted. The child was in his arms, so everything was fine. "He was helping me buy supplies and when I overdrew he made the request. He also helped me unload on my ship and was…" he frowned behind his helmet, looking for the right words. "He was showing me the sights. He fell asleep at sunset and I didn't want to wake either of them."

The lumbering creature narrowed green eyes, ears back as it leaned in. The Mandolorian allowed it, didn't even put a hand on his blaster, let this Zeb take everything in, even the child clutching his neck.

"Don't usually see a Mandolorian out this way," Zeb said.

"He's a Vizla, like Aunt Sabine," Syndulla offered. "And his kid is just like me."

"I didn't realize a Wren was still alive," the Mando said. "Is there a covert here?"

"... No," the creature said. "Sabine was the only Mando here, protecting the planet in case the Empire ever returned. She cried for days when news of the Purge came."

"That's when she thought about finding Uncle Ezra," Syndulla said, getting on the speeder. He yawned, still tired.

The Mandolorian nodded. "I should get back to my ship," he said. "I still haven't refueled."

Zeb frowned, ear twitching in a similar manner to the _adiik's_, and the Mando simply waited.

"I'll give you a lift to the space port," Zeb said.

"I wouldn't want to impose," The Mando replied.

"No imposition," Zeb said, setting and settling on the speeder. Syndulla immediately leaning against the creature's chest and falling asleep almost instantly. "Come on, just let me call Hera."

The Mandolorian took position on the back of the speeder, sheltering his foundling and putting a gentle hand on his head. "Come on," he whispered. "Let's go home."

* * *

**Author's Notes**: aaaaah it's out of my heaaaaaad.

Nothing too special here, just us - like everyone else - adoring the Mandolorian. Dave Filoni is working on this, so wouldn't this be an obvious tie-in to Rebels? Eh, maybe not, but it was a fun idea to play with. And god bless wookiepedia, Mandolorians have their own language:

_Su cuy'gar_: Hello.

_Naak_: Peace.

_Adiik_: kid, usually between 3-13.

_Birikad_: harness to hold a child

_Haar'chak_: Damn it.

_Shig_: a kind of tea

_Uj'ayl_: a kind of syrup

_Aruetyc:_ foreign, usually used to mean "not Mandolorian"

_Aliit_: family, clan, tribe

_Udesii_: calm down, take it easy

_Jetti_: Jedi.


End file.
